Thursday, September 15, 2011

I know it’s been quite awhile since I posted an update. At some point during the spring, I had the profound feeling that my posts were getting redundant; how many updates on canning, goats, and dinners are truly interesting? Since a great deal of my life is unbloggable (teaching), those are the things I feel comfortable writing about most days. Let me assure you that my “country life” is only part of the picture!

If I had to choose a theme or two for the summer, I think they would fall under the category of faith; though my interpretation of faith may not be quite the same as many of my friends’. For the last several months, we’ve experienced a rollercoaster of jobs for Peter, and an awakening of purpose for me. Peter lost a job, was on unemployment for awhile, got a job that lasted 3 months, and was once again on unemployment (this time for just a few weeks), then found his current temporary job…in Texas. This one may or may not last until March of 2012.

He left for the Dallas area last Friday, as I was in my classroom, during the first week of school for this term. He made the trip, all packed into the 1999 ragtop Miata (and I DO mean RAGS…the top is held together with duct tape!) and miraculously arrived in one piece on Sunday, to begin work on Monday. What a guy! I have never known such a positive spirit. To travel alone, across the country on a wing and a prayer, at 63 years old is a testament to his youthful soul.

That’s only one of our many synchronous adventures this year; it seems that every time we have an actual need, the universe complies somehow. I have been aware of the concept of manifestation for quite some time now; the process seems to have become a part of the zeitgeist, as it’s coming to me from all over. We have been manifesting slowly and steadily, which has been working just fine for us. As I said to my friend Arlene Curley, the day before he lost his last job: “Change is in the air!”

For me, that means a concerted effort to habit-bust. I’m making our house more user friendly while Peter is away, by reassigning some dedicated space for his office, and by sorting through much of the weighty STUFF that’s holding us down. Arlene’s journey was inspirational to me; at the age of 60, she decided to remake herself. She unloaded her possessions, and followed her muse to Alaska, where she encountered her future. The rest of that story is hers to tell, but her courage truly moved me.

So, at 53 (me), my husband is in Texas, and I’m still teaching, but with my eye on my future. I’ve begun the first baby steps at writing my book, and spent a good part of the summer researching. I’m deciding upon my “voice” right now, balancing the academic with the “historical pulp” if you get my drift. It’s such an exciting story to tell.

Pierre Bourdelle was the child of history, and the bridge to the present for us; I want to share that feeling with others. To be able to touch living history through your own bloodline: the passion of Rodin and Claudel, the apprentice system in action, the migration of the center of the art world from Paris to New York, the advent of Modernism and the waves of change it brought to education and world culture…it’s all there. I can feel it in my pulse. I can see it in Peter’s profile. And I have the ability to write it for others; it’s just a matter of time.